http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

http://click.macworld.email-publisher.com/maabmojaaZUNmbVhvjRb/

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

Create that folder full of pictures and name it whatever.slideSaver. Drag the folder (which now displays the slideSaver icon) into the ~/Library/ScreenSavers/ directory. Launch System Preferences and click the Screen Effects system preference.

The New Face of FaceSpan -- After a long hiatus, FaceSpan has returned in a new version completely rewritten for Mac OS X. FaceSpan 4.0 is an application construction kit with AppleScript as the programming language: you "draw" your interface, you write AppleScript code in scripts attached to the interface items, you compile, and presto, you've got a stand-alone application. Like Apple's AppleScript Studio, FaceSpan is written in Cocoa, it builds Cocoa applications, it can call Cocoa (Objective-C) methods, and it uses the AppleScriptKit dictionary.

<http://www.facespan.com/ facespan/ pagespeed/ url/ features4.0/>
<http://www.apple.com/ applescript/ studio/>

Of course, AppleScript Studio has the advantage of being free (see "AppleScript's Studly Studio" in TidBITS-610). But FaceSpan is small (less than 8 MB), self-contained, and easy to use - so easy that I wrote my first application without even reading the manual. (Okay, so all it did was add two numbers together, but that's a start.) One reason for its simplicity is that the interface is remarkably intuitive; another is that a script can be attached to an individual control, and stands in an inheritance relationship with the container of that control - for example, a button in a window has a script that can "see" the window's script, similar to HyperCard. Optionally, FaceSpan also integrates with Late Night Software's Script Debugger 3.0.8 for much better debugging than Apple provides. FaceSpan comes in two versions: the full version is $200; the "lite" version is $90, and limits any compiled applications to running on a computer where FaceSpan is installed. Owners of previous versions can upgrade for $100. [MAN]

<http://db.tidbits.com/ getbits.acgi? tbart= 06667>
<http://www.latenightsw.com/ sd3.0/ updateDownload.html>

Perl Made Easy with Affrus 1.0 -- Late Night Software has a history of picking up where Apple leaves off. Mac OS X includes AppleScript, but Apple's own Script Editor isn't all that great as an editing environment, and it can't debug at all. Late Night's Script Debugger makes up for this, making AppleScript easily editable and debuggable. Late Night Software has continued in the same vein with the announcement of Affrus, which does the same for Perl. (Conflict of interest disclaimer: I wrote the manuals for both programs.)

Perl is a popular Unix scripting language; Mac OS X includes Perl, but has no native application for easy editing and debugging of Perl scripts. Affrus meets this need. You can step through Perl scripts, or run to breakpoints that you set, evaluating expressions and examining variables in their runtime context. Syntax coloring clarifies the script's meaning; a pop-up menu lets you navigate to a subroutine's definition, even if it's in an external module. Affrus costs $100 and requires Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar or higher; a 30-day demo is available as a 4.9 MB download. [MAN]

<http://www.latenightsw.com/ affrus/>

Style Master 3.5 Works Web Site Wizardry -- Western Civilisation's Style Master has long been [somebody's] favorite application for creating, editing, and previewing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Web pages (see "Precision Web Pages with Style Master" in TidBITS-501). It encapsulates a difficult language in an easy interface; put another way, it knows CSS so you don't have to (although you can certainly use it to edit your CSS directly if you wish). And now, you really don't have to know any CSS, because the version 3.5 includes "wizards".

<http://db.tidbits.com/ getbits.acgi? tbart= 05602>
<http://www.westciv.com/ style_ master/ product_ info/>

A wizard is a dialog sequence; it guides you through choices about how you want your Web pages to look (font, margins, borders, and so forth), and then generates the corresponding CSS and some HTML to illustrate those attributes. And, beyond the level of general page layout, wizards are also included for such common page elements as site navigation bars and "breadcrumbs" (links showing where the user is located within your site). If even wizards are too much trouble, you can just use one of a dozen included pre-built CSS page templates (provided under a Creative Commons license). There is also now built-in page previewing, along with CSS validation within Style Master or online using W3C's validator. Now anyone can set up great-looking, valid CSS-based Web sites in about a minute. Style Master requires Mac OS X 10.0 or higher, and costs $60; this update is $40 for existing owners. A 30-day demo is available as a 5.8 MB download. [MAN]

<http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 1.0/>
<http://jigsaw.w3.org/ css- validator/>

The solution to the vanishing Microsoft Clip Art Gallery problem on the Macintosh:

At some time when you do have access to the clip art, make a backup copy of the "Clip Gallery Preferences" file. This file is located in the Microsoft folder which is in the Preferences folder, which is in the System Folder. Whenever your clip art vanishes, quit any Microsoft Office programs you have open. Make a copy of your backed up "Clip Gallery Preferences" file, and put it back into the System/Preferences/Microsoft folder, replacing the one which is there. For some reason, this preference file becomes corrupted rather easily, and when it does, the clip art is inaccessible. But restoring the file brings everything back again.